EPO Technical Board of Appeal restricts "Oncomouse" patent

Munich, 07 Jul 2004

As a result of an appeal decision, European patent EP 0 169 672 better-known as the "Oncomouse" patent, has been further restricted.

In 1985 the President and Fellows of Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, applied for a European patent entitled "Method for producing transgenic animals". The patent was granted in May 1992 in respect of "non-human mammalian animals" for eleven member states of the European Patent Organisation.

Seventeen oppositions against the patent, filed in 1992 and 1993, led to the decision in November 2001 to maintain the patent in respect of "transgenic rodents". Several appeals against that decision lodged in March 2003 were heard by the Technical Board of Appeal which decided to restrict the patent further to "transgenic mice".

The full reasons for the appeal decisions will be given later in writing.

For more information, please contact:

Rainer Osterwalder
Press Officer
European Patent Office
D-80298 Munich
Phone: +4989/2399-5012
Fax: +4989/2399-2850
e-mail: rosterwalder@epo.org

European Patent Office
Item source: http://www.european-patent-office.org/ne ws/pressrel/2004_07_06_e.htm